Fans will be able to tell Geelong Cats captain Joel Selwood via Twitter what to call at toss

GEELONG fans will be able to potentially influence the outcome of games in a world-first Twitter initiative.

Cats captain Joel Selwood will let fans decide through Twitter whether he chooses heads or tails at the traditional coin toss before the club's 11 away games this season.

Before he runs out on to the ground, Selwood will be informed by the Cats social media team the result of the poll where the fans will vote for heads or tails via #YourCall on the club's Twitter handle @GeelongCats.

Should there be a significant wind advantage to one end of the ground, the toss of the coin takes on greater significance which places more importance on the fans getting it right.

Selwood, who has more than 40,000 followers on Twitter, welcomed the idea of getting the fans more involved.

"I'm a little more heads than tails (with the coin toss) but I'm really open to it," he said. "It gets us to interact with the fans a little bit more and gets them to have a bit of a say.

"I think it's huge and I think you'll see more of it (social media) in coming years. It's not too often you see, especially a player, sort of show you what you are doing before a game or even having an impact on what can happen in the game.

"We hope Geelong fans get involved, all football fans get involved in it, and we'll see how it goes.

"It would certainly be nice to kick with the wind in Round 1 against the Hawks."

The idea stemmed from a recent fact-finding trip to the US by Geelong's Digital Media Manager Tom Peeters. He met with the New York Giants who'd tried to get it introduced for last year's NFL season but the club's football department rejected the idea.

Last year, the Cats became the first professional sports team in Australia to display their Twitter handle on their on-field apparel via the players pre-game warm-up tops.

They also have a 'Tweet the Coach' segment on Cats TV where fans can tweet their questions into senior coach Chris Scott each week.

News.com.au's Privacy Policy includes important information about our collection, use and disclosure of your personal information (including to provide you with targeted content and advertising based on your online activities). It explains that if you do not provide us with information we have requested from you, we may not be able to provide you with the goods and services you require. It also explains how you can access or seek correction of your personal information, how you can complain about a breach of the Australian Privacy Principles and how we will deal with a complaint of that nature.